No. The AT is not a wilderness experience. But it's at least a little bit of the green world, that's within reach of the Eastern cities.
Thru-hikers get to spend a few months at least mostly surrounded by green trees rather than pavement and fluorescent lights.
That's a Very Good Thing.
Thru-hikers are still in the minority. Most of the travelers are people who've come for a few hours or a few days, seeing what they can and enjoying what they're capable of, and still getting a few hours or a few days out in fresher air and quieter surroundings.
And that's a Very Good Thing.
Just Bill pointed out to me some time ago, too, that the AT is like the recruiting office. It's not real wilderness, but it shows off some of the experience you'll get in real wilderness. Some of those who travel on it will decide they want more, and go on to be travellers in the real wilderness. Others will come home inspired, and become advocates for preserving our few, incredibly fragile, wild areas that still remain. Still others won't change profoundly, but might still cast a vote or write a letter to a Congresscritter when it matters. And some will simply come home a bit healthier, which is a good thing too.
Since Just Bill was quoting Nessmuk:
Do you call this trifling? I tell you, friend,
A life in the forest is past all praise.
Give me a dozen such months on end--
You may take my balance of years and days.
For brick and mortar breed filth and crime,
And a pulse of evil that throbs and beats.
And men are withered before their prime
By the curse paved in with the lanes and streets.
And lungs are poisoned, and shoulders bowed,
In the smothering reek of mill and mine;
And Death stalks in on the struggling crowd,
But he shuns the shadow of oak and pine.
It doesn't have to be "a dozen months on end" to be good.
I happen to enjoy at least short trips that involve studying maps and aerial photos, route planning, compass, altimeter and GPS work, and pushing through brush, scrambling rock, plooshing through fen and bog, and so on. But few newbies would. It's an acquired taste. The AT is a place to begin acquiring the taste. That's what it's for.